What Are The Happiest – And Unhappiest – Places To Live In The UK?

They don't call it 'God's Own County' for nothing. The rolling hills, historic towns and dramatic skies of Yorkshire all contribute to making it one of the UK's most beautiful regions. So is it any wonder that the spa town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire has been named the happiest place to live in the UK?

Property search website Rightmove conducted their annual survey asking 24,000 people to rate where they lived. And for the third year running, Harrogate came out on top.

The 12 points participants were asked to consider included: space, sense of community, pride in the area, upkeep, safety, recreation and neighbourliness, with Harrogate scoring highest in safety, pride and general upkeep.

Home to the famous Betty's Tea Room (founded in 1919) and equally famous Turkish Baths (dating back to 1896) Harrogate is also popular with tourists, attracted to the town's literary traditions (it hosts an annual crime-writing festival) and luxury hotels.

Also top of the 'happiest place to live' list were Shrewsbury (which came in second), Ipswich (third) and York (fourth).

At the other end of the scale, however, the vicinity deemed the most unhappy place to live in the UK, was Barking and Dagenham. Scoring particularly low in community, safety and general neighbourliness, the high level of crime is considered a contributing factor to its low ratings; research earlier this year revealed Dagenham was the most burgled town in the UK.

It was joined on the unhappy list by other London boroughs including Hounslow, Brent, Harrow and Greenwich.

Which goes to show that whilst the south may enjoy sunnier and warmer climes in general, all clouds in the north have silver linings.